1919 & RTIUSING THE GOVERNMENT INFORMATION CENTRE AS A HUB FOR RTI

1919 predates RTI and yet, curiously, prefigures and embodies the spirit of the Act.

The GIC already has connections to many line ministries and Govt departments.

The 1919 service has trained staff, and the number is relatively well known and respected.

There is an information taxonomy in operation which can be strengthened by the RTI Act’s provisions

GIC can act as a broker between IO’s in Govt and citizens who are unable to process or fill out RTI applications on their own

WHAT IS GIC?

Citizens want to know how they can obtain a government service. As a solution to this problem, theInformation and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka envisaged a call centre which enabled citizens to call and obtain information about all government services.

This call center was activated as the government ‘Information and Help Desk’.

WHAT IS GIC?

Over the past years more service delivery channels were added to provide government services in a more convenient manner such as GovSMS (1919), an interactive website (www.gic.gov.lk), and Social media.

These enhancements enabled GIC to provide complaint and grievance handling services to the citizen through the telephone services (1919) and the interactive website (www.gic.gov.lk), provide digital intermediary services on government eServices to the citizen and provide support services on government electronic services, to the citizen.

WHAT IS GIC?

The GIC – 1919 was officially launched in August 2006 and continuously operated until 2009 under the eSri Lanka program. Since the GIC was operating successfully, from 2009 the Presidential Secretariat has been funding the operational activities of GIC. Hence the current owner of the project is the Presidential Secretariat. ICTA has been managing this initiative since the inception.

THE FUTURE OF GIC

Talking about what he would like to do see in the future, the Commissioner said that he hopes they can use technology to bring all services much closer to people – where citizens can easily obtain services of the Department through their mobile phones while having lunch or on the go. The idea is that people should see obtaining services of Government departments as a part of their everyday lifestyle that happens with ease.

Via http://30yearsago.asia/bringing-government-closer-to-the-people/

SITUATION BEFORE 1919 / GIC

SITUATION AFTER 1919 / GIC

TRILINGUAL WEBSITE

ABOUT GIC

ABOUT GIC

COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF SERVICES / CONNECTIONS TO GOVT

COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF INTERMEDIARY SERVICES ACROSS GOVT

TOP 10 QUERIES ARE AROUND…

MORE INFORMATION ON 30 YEARS AGO WEBSITE

INTRODUCTION (INCORPORATING GIC IN OGP SCHEMA)

INTRODUCTION (INCORPORATING GIC IN OGP SCHEMA)

Change the orientation of 1919 to be the government’s central RTI repository and call centre

The GIC would over time become the primary, single-stop interface for RTI queries and status of applications

Applications can be lodged electronically. They can be downloaded after filling out pre-designed templates (the templates themselves can be downloaded). Alternatively, 1919 operators can help in the design of a query, and email an RTI query to a citizen who could then go on to lodge it.

INTRODUCTION (INCORPORATING GIC IN OGP SCHEMA)

The use of 1919 / GIC means that even non-literate citizens could lodge RTI applications. It also means that you don’t need an Internet connection, tablet, smartphone or computer in order to find out how to lodge an RTI application.

All RTI applications would be given a tracking number. The backend systems in use already by GIC and relevant line ministries can be upgraded as appropriate to help with systemic monitoring of RTI requests and responses.

Significant upgrades to the 1919 website will be necessary in order to make all the pages, and all the content, accessible on mobile devices

EVOLUTION

By merging the existing mandate of 1919 and provisions in the RTI Act, a single-stop, tri-lingual portal can be created –for mobile, desktop, voice calls and postal mail – to service information requests from the public.

The Ugandan RTI portal offers a template.

ASK YOUR GOVERNMENT | UGANDA

ASK YOUR GOVERNMENT | UGANDA

ASK YOUR GOVERNMENT | UGANDA

ASK YOUR GOVERNMENT | UGANDA

ASK YOUR GOVERNMENT | UGANDA